Your Oscar Nominations Reading List

Randy Shilts, THE MAYOR OF CASTRO STREET. The screenplay for Best Picture nominee "Milk" by Dustin Lance Black was nominated in the original category, but I read somewhere that Black consulted this book by the author of AND THE BAND PLAYED ON while writing it.

Vikas Swarup, Q AND A. I didn't have time to read this before I caught up with Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire," a movie I'm hoping to see again before the Academy Awards. (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay)

Bernhard Schlink, THE READER. I just found out that the author of this mid-century drama is a former law professor and judge, which (if you know anything about this movie) definitely sheds some light on its subject matter. (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress-Kate Winslet)

F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" As I said when I wrote about it a few weeks ago, it's just a short story -- what do you have to lose? And with 13 nominations overall (among them Best Picture, Best Actor-Brad Pitt and Best Director), you'll get the most bang for your buck.

Two plays-turned-Oscar-nominated movies: John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt" (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress-Meryl Streep, Best Supporting Actor-P.S. Hoffman and two in the Best Supporting Actress category, Amy Adams and Viola Davis) and Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon" (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor-Frank Langella). It's a great year for drama to be represented overall -- playwright Martin McDonagh got a screenwriting nod for his first movie "In Bruges," Hoffman co-founded his own theatre company and Best Supporting Actor nominee Michael Shannon is an Off-Broadway all-star.